Family Wants Justice For Nigerian Professor ‘Murdered’ In Namibia

"Suicide by gunshot is never aimed at the chest but at the head. If he allegedly committed suicide, why was his mobile phone found in his hand? Did the Police do a measurement of the actual shot to the chest?" the family spokesperson queried.

by Sahara Reporters, New YorkAug 15, 2018

The family of 56-year-old Ayetuoma Cyril Ogbokor, an Associate Professor, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Faculty of Management Sciences, Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), has cried out for justice following the alleged murder of their son in Namibia.

The Namibian Police Force had claimed that Ogbokor, who is from Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State, committed suicide by shooting himself with his 7.65 mm pistol in the chest on Sunday August 5, 2018, at his apartment in Pinnacle Court in Orban Street, Klein Windhoek at around 10h30.

The Police report, however, did not go down well with his family as according to them, there was no motive or a suicide note.

They therefore, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Foreign Affairs & Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, to intervene in the matter.

Speaking on behalf of the Ogbokor family with SaharaReporters, a family member, who simply identified himself as Roy, said: "With reliable information at our disposal, we, the Ogbokor family, are convinced that our brother and breadwinner, was brutally murdered in cold blood and we are demanding justice."

Reacting to the report of the Namibian Police Force he said: "there was no iota of truth in the report. We smelt a conspiracy in the report just in the bid to cover up what actually happened to our brother. As we talk, till this moment, our brother's wife, Mrs Gladys Ogbokor, has not deemed it fit to formally inform the family about the alleged suicide of her husband as being claimed.

"On August 5, 2018, at approximately 15:20hrs, we received a call from the eldest daughter of Professor Cyril Ayetuoma Ogbokor in Namibia, stating that her father, who is our elder brother had died. When we asked if it was a joke, she said it was true. We then asked what happened and how did he died. She stated that our brother shot himself in the bathroom. We then asked what his reasons were.

"She told us that her father sent a WhatsApp message to her mum, who was in church that he could no longer bear the back pain and that the mother should look after the children. The daughter also stated that it was when her mum came back from church that they found him lying on the floor in the bathroom with his mobile phone in his hand. On further questioning, she told us that she never heard the sound of a gunshot, as she was asleep having finished a night shift.

"After several days of the murder of our brother, Mrs Gladys Ogbokor, who is the wife of our late professor brother reluctantly told one of our brothers that her husband complained of not feeling well in the early hours of that fateful day, and that she made breakfast for him before leaving for church with her two other children, while the eldest was at home. Until this day, the head of the Ogbokor family has not been informed formally of this dastardly act," Roy said.

He rejected the Police report, stating that "It is not possible for our son, Professor Ogbokor, to shoot himself as he has never been a violent person. Suicide by gunshot is never aimed at the chest but at the head. If he allegedly committed suicide, why was his mobile phone found in his hand? Did the Police do a measurement of the actual shot to the chest?

"If there was no suicide note as stated by the Police, where did the police get their finding to conclude that our son actually committed suicide? Was there any autopsy carried out before the report of the Namibian Police Force? What was the duration of the Namibian police investigation on this case before jumping into conclusion? The world has the right to know, as the Namibian Police report was published less than 24hrs after the crime was committed.”

SaharaReporters learned that barely a week after Professor Ogbokor’s death, with his body still in a mortuary in Namibia, his wife was allegedly making arrangements for his burial without the knowledge of the deceased’s family.

The deceased, a Professor at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), started his professional career at the University of Uyo in 1987, and thereafter the Nigerian Defence Academy. In 1990, he was a lecturer at the University of Abuja, where he acted as the acting Head of Department (HOD) and in 1995, he was among the team sent by the Nigerian government to Namibia on a technical aide corps training and has since settled there with his family.

Prof. Ogbokor had double Doctorate Degrees in Economics and M.Sc. and B.Sc. measuring in Economics, won numerous awards and had, to his credit, series of books and journals for academics and the Namibia government as well.

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